Thursday, 4 August 2016

Treasurer's House Gardens

We travelled up to York on
the train last week. Even if you have no interest in railways the
station in York is suitably impressive and well worth a look. From
there we went to some of our usual haunts (York does have some great
ghost tours as well!) and we also popped into the tourist information
centre. Whilst perusing the leaflets on the local attractions I was
reminded of the fact that the National Trust have a property in the
centre of York called the Treasurer's House. With membership cards in
my purse we decided walk the short distance to it.

The reason I had forgotten
about the Treasurer's House is that it is hidden behind York
Minister. It was given to the National Trust in 1930 by Frank Green
who had originally purchased it in 1897. Green was a wealthy man who
had made his money through the family businesses around Yorkshire.
With this money he bought antiques and works of art and needed
somewhere to house them. He found the Treasurer's House and decided
not only to buy it but to renovate it. The original Treasurer's House
dates from the 12th century but only an external wall
remains of it. Its name comes from when the Treasurer whose job it
was to deal with York Minster's finances. There hasn't been a
Treasurer since the Reformation in the 1540s but the name has stuck.

When Green decided to retire
to Somerset he gave the Treasurer's House to the National Trust. It
was the first house the National Trust had been given with all of the
contents complete plus the sunken wall garden. Green restyled the
garden when he bought it and had it dug out. When the work started so
much stone was found that Green thought at one point it must have
housed the stonemasons' yard.

The figure in the fountain
is Mercury. At one stage Green had a lead statue of Mercury in the
garden but it is no longer here. The National Trust had a replica
made and adapted to be used with the water feature.

The London Plane trees that
have been planted around the garden were put in for the visit of the
Prince and Princess of Wales in 1900. Within a year the prince had
become King Edward VII. London Planes are so called as they are the
most common tree in London. This is because they are not a woodland
tree but perfectly suited to urban areas.

Although the Treasurer's
House is in the centre of a city York is also an ancient place and
its position in the shadow of the Minster means it is also a tranquil
one. With this in mind the gardeners use no noisy electrical tools
and that includes mowers and hedge trimmers. Despite the extra work
this method takes the gardening team have achieved gold in the
Yorkshire in Bloom awards in both 2014 and 2015.

Although at the time of my
visit the flowers in the garden were slightly past their best you
could still see the colour scheme. Unusually it is based on blue and
white colours with delphiniums and Sisyrinchium striatum prominent in
the borders.

In everything that Green did
he was a very precise man. Around the house he put studs on the
floorboards to make sure the servants didn't move the furniture
around. When he gave the house to the National Trust he did so on the
proviso that they didn't change anything otherwise he would come back
and haunt them! When things have had to be moved around sometimes a
spooky occurrence has followed it with the thought that Green and his
famous temper has returned to show his displeasure. Whatever you do
when you visit just make sure you leave everything as you found it!

1 comment:

I grew up in York and my last visit to the Treasury House was in the late 80's, I remember it being very badly decorated inside after a restoration, however i remember the gardens from my last visit to the Minster last year as being delightful

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